Every night a shepherd reads aloud a murder mystery, pretending his sheep can understand. When he is found dead, the sheep realize at once that it was a murder and think they know everything about how to go about solving it.
A movie like “The Sheep Detectives” can be a hard one to peg. The closest analogy I can think of is 1995’s “Babe,” a similarly heartwarming film that delivers its story deliberately and confidently to good effect. The interaction between animals and humans – subtle though it may be – constitutes a large part of the charm.
Top billing goes to Hugh Jackman, who plays George Hardy, the affable shepherd of a modest flock of sheep on his 300-acre plot. He knows the name of every one of the kind animals. Every evening, George reads portions of a detective novel to his rapt sheep, all of whom lie quietly, listening to every word. When George pauses at a particularly crucial point in one of the stories by saying that’s enough for today, he turns and goes inside his modest Airstream trailer. After a moment, the sheep begin bleating and then start speaking in English, asking each other why George always stops reading just as the killer is about to be revealed. One might infer from this early scene that “The Sheep Detectives” is a comedy, which it is in part. But the film is so much more. Long before the closing credits roll, audiences will find themselves moved by the well-developed characters and their motivations – both human and animal.
The smartest of the flock is Lily (voiced by Julia Louis-Dreyfus), who always figures out who committed the crime well before the final chapter George reads. Patrick Stewart, as the voice of Sir Ritchfield, starts out as sort of a stick-in-the-mud fellow, echoing the herd’s consensus, even when it’s all flat wrong, except for Lily. He, among others, demonstrates his ability to learn and adapt throughout the proceedings.
A reporter named Elliot Matthews (Nicholas Galitzine) shows up unexpectedly to cover the small town’s annual festival of sorts. He is suitably unimpressed, as the so-called festival consists of little more than three booths featuring unremarkable agricultural products. As a junior reporter covering mostly obituaries, he latches onto the case of George’s murder in the hopes of making a bigger journalistic splash. Officer Derry reluctantly accepts some of the reporter’s tips, which actually advance the investigation.
One of the rams named Sebastian (voiced by Bryan Cranston) remains largely aloof from the rest, spending much of his time on a mountaintop overlooking George’s land, and then disappearing from time to time, though always returning. When Sebastian finally deigns to come to the pasture after George has been murdered, his dialogue is worldly and wise – a delightful voice of reason in a sea of meek lambs simply going with the flow. He presciently points out what humans call stupid people who can’t think for themselves – sheep! These numerous analogies and metaphors that populate “The Sheep Detectives” make the film more than a simple whodunit.
Lily, Sebastian, and Mopple (voiced by Chris O’Dowd) decide to investigate their own to try to solve the mystery of George’s death. They make a good team. While Lily is the smartest, Mopple – who never forgets, unlike the other sheep who do so all too willingly – is the wisest.
As the trio ventures into town to overhear human conversation and witness what they can, they benefit greatly from Sebastian’s counsel. When Lily is concerned that humans will see the three sheep, Sebastian replies that they have already been seen and that nobody cares. This gives the group wide latitude to sniff around town largely unnoticed.
As the three pass the church, Lily asks about the nature of Christianity. Sebastian responds that the religion’s savior is both the shepherd and the lamb – a startling inconsistency to start with. Further, the parishioners eat his body made of bread – another concept with which to wrestle – all of which goes over the heads of Lily and Mopple, as well as most Catholics.
Nicholas Braun plays the local policeman Tim Derry, a fumbling buffoon, albeit capable of upping his game along the way. Tosin Cole plays another area shepherd who leases an adjacent 300 acres and tends his own flock. Early on, he and George argue about merging their flocks, though it’s not clear why.
Not long after George’s death, his lawyer Lydia Harbottle (Emma Thompson) arrives in her chauffeured car to read the will. Included in the reading is George’s daughter, Rebecca, and her brother, Elliot, who lives in South Africa. Other key roles present at the reading include the local innkeeper Beth Pennock (Hong Chau), the local priest (Kobna Holdbrook-Smith), and the town butcher (Conleth Hill).
A central theme of “The Sheep Detectives” revolves around what people choose to eat. The butcher, for example, suspects that George was a vegetarian, something he could abide in a woman, but not a man. Yet not surprisingly, George’s flock would certainly have been horrified to find out that their shepherd dined on mutton, which he didn’t, as specifically articulated later.
Tommy Birchall voices the Winter Lamb character, notable because most of the species are born in the spring. As such, Winter Lambs tend to be outcasts, rejected by the larger tribe. To his credit, George nurtures the Winter Lamb – without a name at the time – despite the silent protestations of the rest of the flock. Before the story concludes, it becomes clear that the other characters in “The Sheep Detectives” are also Winter Lambs.
Lily and most of the other sheep have been conditioned to believe that at the end of their earthly existence, they transform into clouds. The evidence for such a belief is readily apparent overhead with all of the morphing shapes enticing the imagination of the various members of the sheep community. Later, however, this dogmatic belief is challenged and ultimately discarded by Lily and others based on fact and observation.
Directed by Kyle Balda and written by Craig Mazin, based on Leonie Swann’s 2005 novel ‘Three Bags Full,’ “The Sheep Detectives” represents a fine adaptation from book to screen. The motion picture tugs at the heartstrings and seeks to shed light on issues facing modern society, transcending simple comedy into something more relevant to our lives and the ingrained beliefs that animate us, for good or ill.
In Theaters Friday, May 8th
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